Dolphins assistant Dave Fipp leaves to join Eagles staff

Second season with Miami; spent three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers…

January 23, 2013|By Omar Kelly, Sun Sentinel

MOBILE, Ala. - The Miami Dolphins have had one of the best special teams units in the NFL the past two seasons and it appears the unit's success has cost the team one of its assistants.

Dave Fipp, an assistant special teams coach the past two seasons, will join Chip Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles staff according to a league source.

The Eagles have not confirmed Fipp being hired to serve as Philadelphia's special teams coordinator, but he's at the Senior Bowl wearing Eagles gear.

Fipp respectfully declined comment on his new position.

Fipp, 38, was a special teams standout at the University of Arizona in the mid-1990s before coaching at Holy Cross, Arizona, Cal Poly, Nevada and San Jose State.

He joined Mike Nolan 49ers staff in 2008 as assistant special teams coach, and served in the same role with the Dolphins the past two years, working alongside coordinator Darren Rizzi.

Miami's special teams unit has ranked in the top five the past two seasons, including fourth this year, according to the annual rankings by Dallas Morning News writer Rick Gosselin.

Last year the Dolphins finished second in Gosselin's special teams rankings, which puts quantitative figures on each unit's performance in all special teams roles and computes a point value.

The only teams better than the Dolphins, which received a 296 score, were Minnesota (253.5), Cincinnati (276) and Baltimore (277).

Fipp is believed to be the only coaching change the Dolphins have made so far this season. It is unclear if Fipp will be replaced, but the Dolphins have been working to find a role for Al Harris, a former Blanche Ely standout who went on to play 14 seasons as an NFL cornerback. Harris, who played for the Eagles and Packers, spent all season working as a coaching intern with the team.